


Wild and free

by orphan_account



Series: Velalora Lavellan [2]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Elfy elves, F/M, how do you tags?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-22
Updated: 2016-01-22
Packaged: 2018-05-15 14:13:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5788258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Inquisitor vanishes for a week, along with the only other three Dalish under the Inquisition.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wild and free

She was up to something, they all knew it. The question was never 'if', but more like 'what'. What had had the gears turning in their leader's head for the last few days? She had seemed distant to all of them, her Advisers, her Inner Circle, especially Cullen. Of course, he blamed himself when she vanished. 

"Gone?! How can she be gone?" He growled at the courier that had barged into the War Room, the man flinching away from the imposing commander. 

"Perhaps she just went out on her mission to the Western Approach early?" Josephine, ever the diplomat, tried to rationalize. "Her companions, are any of them missing?"  
"N-no ma'am. We have received word of three other elves, Dalish, vanishing th-though."  
"Names?" Cullen barked, fully intending to send his people after them. Had the elves kidnapped her? Killed her?  
"Fen'vir, T-Taelaros, and Loranil, ser. They left their assignments with orders to return to Skyhold, to help the Herald with a 'personal project'." He paused, swallowed around the dry lump in his throat, before continuing, "we searched her Worship's quarters, as well. No signs of a struggle."  
"Anything else?" Leliana stepped in, saving the runner from the Commander's harsh glare.  
"Not at present." He paused, swallowed around the dry lump in his throat, before continuing, "we searched her Worship's quarters, as well. No signs of a struggle. We've scouts out looking for them. We traced them to the Hinterlands but then their trails vanished." Her gaze was no better, but at last the courier was dismissed. 

All eyes turned to Cullen, who had shifted to lean against the table, head hung between his fur-covered shoulders. "If anything's happened to her..." He muttered, shaking his head. He should have talked to her, confronted her rather than letting her alone. To his side, Leliana scoffed, and he rounded on her.  
"Her? Commander, do not be ridiculous. She's faced down Pride Demons, Dragons, Archdemons - just give her time. She'll return." 

\---

For Vela, that week was possibly the best of her life. She'd grown to miss her clan, her ways, and when Loranil, a hunter she'd known since her childhood, suggested she round up the few others in her rank and just... escape, it had been too tantalizing to ignore. She traded her silky Skyhold nightclothes for her old armor, sent to her by her Keeper only nights before, and fled into the hills of the Hinterlands. They'd taken harts, depending on the silent, but swift, animals to get them beyond Skyhold without alerting the guards on patrol. And it had worked! 

They sent the mounts back to Skyhold once safely into the wilderness, knowing full well they would be able to find their way home, and hooted and hollered the whole first night away, sounding for all their worth like wild heathens. They hunted the rams higher in the mountains, wearing the horns upon their heads and bleating at eachother as they clung to the very same sheer cliffs as the animals. They watched a bear catch fish for cubs hidden safely away, and learned from her, leaving baskets of fresh fish at the fires of the refugees come morning. They gathered and planted herbs anywhere that would grow them, sending them along to Skyhold for the healers there, as well as a note - Vela couldn't leave Cullen thinking she had run from him. 

The note was simple, nothing more than 'I'm alright, more than alright. I will return." And the other elves teased her about the fond smile that graced her lips when she wrote it, but they didn't push it beyond lighthearted joking. 

They spent two weeks in the wilds of the Hinterlands, and rumors began to circulate of a rogue band of elves. More than once they hid from Inquisition scouts, no doubt sent to find them. Only once did they allow themselves to be seen, and only by Scout Harding. And what a sight they must've been for the poor woman. Four feral beings, eyes glinting like a predator's from the bushes before they emerged. All were cloaked in ram's fur, feet bare, and feathers and bones braided into their hair. They looked the part, and Harding wasn't sure if they meant to resemble all the stories of the wild elves. Vela twisted her fist over her heart in a salute to the scout, before the four were gone again.

At the end of their first week, they had a ceremony. A fire was lit, and dyes made. Taelaros, who'd been the Keeper of a clan before his people had been slaughtered, carefully tattooed the branching lines of Mythal's Vallaslin further down the Inquisitor's neck and shoulders, the pattern sweeping down and around her breasts and arms. The new marks ended at her hips and finger tips, swirling delicately to match that of the mark pulsing in her left palm. It took hours, but the whole group sat in perfect silence, only breaking into song and dance after the last line had been scored in. 

The final day of the next week, they cleaned up, unbraiding the bones from their hair and scrubbing the blood from their cheeks and dirt from their feet, before showing up at the main camp and asking for horses to return to Skyhold on. The mounts were supplied, and the four raced the wind back, their last bit of freedom before they had to face the war and politics and humans once more. 

\---

Cullen's head snapped up as a horn sounded at the bridge. He was the first out of the war room and out the door, shouldering through the slowly gathering crowd when the group rode in. His eyes immediately found her, and he felt the week's tenseness and anger just melt out of him. She looked truly _happy_ , her somehow much longer hair disheveled, and her cheeks and the tip of her ears red from the kiss of the wind as they rode. He didn't miss the new grey-lilac lines branching out over her arms, nor did he miss the taut, leanness of her lithe frame when she dismounted the borrowed mount. It looked like she hadn't eaten properly in a few days, but that was pushed to the back of his mind when suddenly she was before him, in his arms. She swept up a purely wild scent, elfroot and fur and sun-warmed earth, and it made him more than a little lightheaded. 

The rest of them cheered with the return of their Inquisitor, and a feast of sorts was rushed together, but she was no where to be seen when the time came for the celebration. No one looked over the absence of a certain Commander, either.

**Author's Note:**

> I generally like to go with the [concept art](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/f1/38/c7/f138c7d7480e7dd72eb4414a902807fa.jpg) of the Anchor rather than what we get in-game  
> also her new vallaslin looks similar to this; [(NSFW) x](http://41.media.tumblr.com/f9e4d9a949aae54bac84939fb60769cd/tumblr_nkxnllgX4A1s8beuzo1_500.png) but with more on the arms than just the one band.


End file.
